High seniority employees tend to suck up disproportionate amounts of wages, benefits and desirable hours and conditions of work. That's true in lots of unions.

This tends to be a particular problem any time you have a democratic union. Dictatorial unions with little control by rank and file members allow union leaders to ignore the special interests of long seniority employees and negotiate a fair deal for everyone. But the more democratic the union, the more senior employees pig on on benefits at the expense of all other employees, customers and investors.

You see this when unions accept contracts that keep high wage rates for senior employees but cut wages and benefits sharply for newly hired employees.

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